Audi TT Maintenance Questions

Upon recently purchasing this new vehicle, I was thrilled to see the spark plugs sitting right out in the open where I could easily change them myself. They were a royal pain to get to in my previous TT Quattro, an '02 1.8 twin turbo.

However, the other day I looked more closely at them and there appears to be an individual coil or the like placed between each spark plug wire and the spark plug itself. This connection is solid as a rock with no hint of how the wire and the plug are to be separated.

I purchased a CPO cherry red Audi TT 2008 in September 2011. My dream car and I love it. It is my only car and I drive it into the city roundtrip every day 20 miles. I bought at a dealer about 40 miles from my house.

About two months after I bought it, it started squeaking in the morning when I started it. The squeaking would last about 15 minutes and diminish to nothing as I drove it. If I let the car sit for a few hours, it would also squeak on start. (I'm attaching an audio file of my car squeaking I gave to the dealer.)

I finally took it to a dealer close to me yesterday --- one I did not buy the car from. They called me around 3 PM and said that the mechanic believed the car had a timing belt problem. Actually, they weren't sure if it was the timing belt or the tensioner. As the service handler said

"My Service Manager listened to it and said "that isn't right. We'll replace this lady's timing belt and tension for free! Parts & Labor!"

When I asked how long it would take to do that, the guy said 1/2 a day but the mechanic was really backed up (Thursday) and might not get to it until Friday and...well they might need to keep it over the weekend. Moreover, the guy said they'd extend the free rental and even give me one of their Audis.

Wow, I was thinking when I hung up. These guys are great! I'm definitely going back to them for service...and maybe when I buy by next car.

Ok, I'm slow.

Later that night I'm lying in bed and start thinking about this and google timing belt audi tt 2008. I discover this class action lawsuit and find out timing belts are an issue all over with the TT.

Now, I'm worried about my deal. I don't want to complain about the freebie since it seems likely my car does need it. However, I want to know what kind of problems could have been caused by driving the car with this issue...and nothing I've read about the timing belt issues say anything about long term squeaking before hand.

What should I do now? Should I call them on their freebie? What are some good questions to ask when I pick it up? I'm afraid other things are wrong from this...

It looks like the class action was filed in 2007 and settled in 2008 and was related to earlier models than yours (2001-2003 1.8 Turbos). The deal was to pay for any engine damage related to the timing belt failures. If that's the case, your car isn't part of the suit. Since the car's only 3 years old, I'm wondering if the work was done under warranty?

They said twice "this is not covered by warranty" a statement which was totally apropos of nothing I said. So, I kinda think they are covered by Audi central but not telling me that part. They look like stars to me...as they did it all for free and gave me a loaner for four days.

They didn't end up replacing the tensioner, just the timing belt. That fixed the squeak. From what I read on the failures, that should be enough.